Seasons
by xXxNeonSoundxXx
Summary: A year with Maou and friends certainly is an interesting one. Especially since they're still learning the different things that come with each new passing season. [Hinted!Various x Reader]
1. Spring (Ashiya Shiro & Kamazuki Suzuno)

Coughing heavily, nearly doubling over from the fit, Ashiya has to carefully sit himself down in order to avoid falling straight to the floor. He uses the back of his hand to wipe at his reddening nose, hoping to get rid of any irritant before they could cause another sort of fit. His wishes are denied however, as he soon goes into a series of sneezes that shake him to the core.

"I hate Spring," he complains, taking the tissue that [Name] hands him.

Said girl gives him a sympathetic smile as she pushes the box of tissues closer to Ashiya so he could easily reach them himself. She watches as he leans back in the spot where he is sitting, resting his back against the wall as he closes his eyes in an attempt to alleviate his allergies. It does little for him though, and he's soon reaching for more tissues as another fit of sneezes mixed with coughs plagues him.

"It is not the Springtime that you dislike so strongly," Suzuno interjects from her spot at the kitchen counter. She stirs the soup she is making steadily as she continues, "But the cleaning that comes with Springtime. It is merely the dust you hate."

"Maybe it was a bad idea to go on a big cleaning spree," [Name] says, looking around at the small space. There wasn't much in the room where three guys shared a living space, but somehow everything had been covered in a thin layer of dust. "I honestly don't know how you live in these condition, Ashiya."

"I don't know if you can call this living," Ashiya responds, his voice sounding full of phlegm. He coughs again, trying to rid his throat of the annoying substance, but it's stuck there.

"Perhaps a bit of sustenance with help," Suzuno offers as she turns the stovetop off.

[Name] shifts around from her spot on the floor, letting Suzuno sit where she had been as she goes to a spot right next to Ashiya. Suzuno brings over a rather large bowl full of soup—previously canned, but now it had been heated up in a pot—and sits it down as close to Ashiya as the table will allow. He leans forward slightly, thanking her as he tries to pick up the spoon to feed himself. Just as he's about to bring it up to his lips, another fit of sneezes claims him and he spills the contents of the spoon onto his lap, hissing at the hot liquid.

"Maybe you should let somebody else do that," [Name] suggests, handing him more tissues so he could clean himself off.

Ashiya turns his eyes toward Suzuno, who up until now had only been staring at him, as he pleads with her silently to feed him. Catching his gaze, Suzuno smoothly stands from her seat and steps back. She glances around the room before making her way toward the apartment's exit.

"I'm sure Urushihara is having trouble with the chores I've given him," she explains as she turns the handle to the door. "I should go see if he needs assistance."

As she exits, closing the door behind her, both Ashiya and [Name] stare, unbelieving of her sudden departure. It takes a few seconds before Ashiya sighs, going to grab the spoon for himself once more. Before he can, [Name]'s hand gently shoos his away, picking up the spoon for him.

"We are not going to have a repeat of a few minutes ago," [Name] says sternly, scooping a spoonful of soup. "Now open up and say ah."

It takes Ashiya a few seconds to comply, his brain working slower due to his allergies. Despite how good this soup may have tasted on his tongue and how soothing it felt going down his scratchy throat, he still couldn't get over the fact he'd stooped so low as to need help in feeding himself. It was a good thing Maou wasn't home or Ashiya would really feel ashamed.

"Maybe I can go pick you up some allergy medication from the store," [Name] comments, interrupting Ashiya's self-loathing thoughts. She's mostly talking to herself, a habit she had that Ashiya had quickly noticed from the moment the two of them had met. "Get it on my way home and bring it tomorrow. Of course, you'd need to survive without it until then."

[Name] laughs at the end of her train of thought, helping Ashiya finish up the bowl of soup before she places the empty dish on the table.

"You have to put that in the sink," Ashiya says, pointing sleepily at the kitchen counter. He'd be damned if any ants made it into the apartment just because she didn't put a dirty dish away.

Promising him she'd do it in a minute or two, and receiving a comment that she sounded just like the bum that lived here with him and Maou, [Name] sat back with Ashiya, leaning her back against the wall as well. The two of them stayed in moderate silence after that, Ashiya concentrating on breathing through his stuffy nose and [Name] staring at the trees outside through the window. She could see the pink petals of the cherry blossoms across the street fluttering down from their spots on the tree. It was a sight she looked forward to every year.

"Do they have cherry blossoms where you come from, Ashiya?"

When [Name] didn't receive an answer after a few moments, she glanced back over toward the blonde. With his eyes closed, mouth slightly parted, and arms folded across his chest as he breathed deeply, [Name] could tell that he'd easily fallen asleep in the short amount of time the two of them had been silent. A small smile crossed her lips at the rare sight of Ashiya not acting like a nagging mother and she couldn't help but wonder if he was dreaming about anything in particular.

Turning her gaze back toward the cherry blossoms outside, she was just in time to witness a huge gust of wind blow a bunch of petals through the air, causing a flurry of pink in the streets.

"I hope they do," she whispered to herself. "They're part of the reason why I love Spring."


	2. Summer (Yusa Emi)

A bell chimes as three ladies exit a restaurant, the staff on hand calling out a goodnight to them before the door fully closes. Outside, the night sky has finally turned to its darkest hues and stars are just beginning to peek out for the night, only partially obscured by the lights of the town's nightlife. Even at this hour, the Summer heat makes the air considerably warm.

"That was a good dinner," Rika exclaims, patting her full belly as she sighs in content.

"Definitely worth the wait," [Name] comments. Pulling her phone out of her purse, she checks the time illuminated on the screen. "Well, it's starting to get late. I should head home. I'll see you ladies tomorrow at work."

"Ah, actually," Emi says, stepping in [Name]'s direction. "There's something that way I have to take care of before I get home, so I'll walk with you for a bit, [Name]."

Nodding, the two of them say a quick farewell to Rika before parting ways with her. As the two of them walk off in relative silence, only making short small talk here and there, they let the awakening nightlife of the town surround them. Some stores are just shutting off their lights for the night while others are only now opening, offering their specialized services. It takes them a few minutes of walking before they're out of the town and more in the suburban neighborhood where [Name] lives.

"So," [Name] breaks the silence between the two of them as she looks at Emi mischievously. "Who is it you're visiting so late this night? A boyfriend, perhaps?"

Flushing nearly as red as her hair, Emi shakes her head. "No way, [Name]," she objects, trying hard to fight off the blush that is still consuming her face. When [Name] continues to give her a look that says she doesn't believe the redhead, Emi continues. "I just need to check up on a trio of idiots to make sure they haven't killed each other."

"Right," [Name] reluctantly agrees, dragging out the single syllable.

Another silence consumes the two of them and Emi uses this moment to calm herself down, her cheeks returning to their normal color. It takes all but two minutes before [Name] is saying something else.

"He must be cute if you're willing to walk this late for him."

Once again, Emi finds her face engulfed in red; out of embarrassment or anger, she wasn't really sure. She snaps her gaze toward [Name], eyebrows set downward as she glares at her friend. [Name] is laughing heartily at Emi's reaction, her fingers wiping away at a few tears that threatened to spill over her eyes.

"He is the farthest thing from cute," Emi clarifies, her voice going up an octave as she tries to defend herself from her friend's impure and wrong thoughts.

"So he's handsome then? Wow Emi, didn't know you had such good standards for men!"

"Ugh," Emi grunted in annoyance as [Name] continued with her accusations. "Sadao Maou is the farthest thing from cute, handsome, good looking, or any of those things combined. He's a vile creature that needs to be executed and one day I will destroy that bastard!"

An uncomfortable silence consumed the air after Emi's outburst and, as she realized what she had just yelled out into the night, her steady blush began eating its way at the rest of her face. [Name] stared at her with worry and a hint of apology evident in her eyes. As she reached out a hand to place on Emi's shoulder, she tried to find the right words to say in that moment.

"Geez, Emi, sorry to ruffle your feathers so much. I didn't realize…"

[Name] trailed off as she thought about how she should apologize to her friend. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of light before it disappeared. Another flicker joined it and soon three more as well. Turning her attention away from Emi and toward where the lights were turning on and off, a soft gasp escaped her lips.

"Emi, look," she insisted, gently turning her friend toward the lights.

"What are they?" Emi asked, not recognizing the illuminating balls floating through the air.

Another gasp escaped [Name] as she stared at Emi in disbelief. "You've never seen a firefly before?"

An image of a giant creature from Ente Isla that glowed, slashing it way through the darkest forests, setting things ablaze, and eating anything in its path flashed through Emi's mind, causing her to shudder. "Not any that look like this," she admitted. "What do they do?"

"They just sort of fly around glowing like that," [Name] explained, walking forward with her hand outstretched. If she was lucky, maybe one would land on her finger. "Something or another about the chemicals in their little buggy butts doing that; I don't know, I'm not a biologist. They're usually here when Summer arrives."

Emi watched as a few of them finally landed in [Name]'s outstretched hand. She brought them closer, cupping them in her hands and causing their light to set a soft glow upon her cheeks. From this distance, Emi could see the bugs crawling on [Name]'s hands, looking for their way to escape. When they flew away to join their comrades, her eyes couldn't help but follow their nightly dance.

"They're…" Emi paused for thought, looking at the small insects as they waltzed around the air. She could only follow them every time they glowed, so she never knew just how near or far they were. "Cute? I guess."

"Like Sadao Maou?"

Emi huffed, stalking off as [Name] trailed after her, apologizing behind her laughter.


	3. Autumn (Urushihara Hanzo)

Grumbling quietly to himself, Urushihara wiped the sweat that had been accumulating on his brow. He glared up at the sun above, wishing desperately for some cloud cover. In his grip he squeezed the rake tightly, wanting to smash it to pieces, but knowing that if he did that he'd cost Maou more money than before. With a heavy sigh, he turned back to the painstaking chore Ashiya had assigned and enforced him to do with the threat of selling off his gaming system.

Could raking leaves be any harder? Urushihara was starting to get annoyed by the fact the small orange and brown leaves would only crumble under the weight of his rake, causing them to form smaller pieces that in turn only became harder to rake into a neat little pile. He wondered why he was even raking at all; it wasn't like the landlady was coming back any time soon and the apartment was so run down, nobody of importance would want to visit anyway. So what if the Autumn leaves run amok?

"There, I guess that's another pile down," Urushihara grunted as he looked at the work he'd done so far. Two piles of leaves he'd raked so far were in a large heap, forming mountains that went a little above his knees. "Guess I should start bagging this up before the wind blows it back into place. Man… That's so much work…"

As he turned to grab the plastic garbage bags he'd been given, Urushihara barely registered the sound of running footsteps until it was far too late for him to stop his fast approaching intruder.

"Geronimo!" [Name] screamed as she jumped as high as she could into the air, landing on top of one of the piles of leaves and disappearing in it completely as the dead foliage scattered around.

"What the hell?!" From inside the destroyed mountain of leaves, Urushihara could hear [Name] cackling in delight. "[Name], I was almost done! The leaves are everywhere again!"

"Oh, calm down" [Name] laughed, popping out from underneath the pile she was in. A few leaves were stuck in her hair, poking out here and there. "You should try it too!"

Without any warning, [Name] jumped onto Urushihara, forcing the both of them to fall over into the second large pile of leaves. He managed to let out a surprised yelp as [Name] squeaked and laughed, the two of them rolling around in the leaves and disappearing underneath them all. [Name] was the first to pop out of the mess, looking around for her purple haired friend, but he was nowhere to be seen. She nearly shrieked in surprise when he finally came up right next to her, causing a bigger flurry of leaves than she had expected.

When Urushihara emerged from the pile, one look around told him that the hours of work he'd just spent doing had all gone to waste. With the leaves scattered across the yard as if he hadn't done anything at all, it would take him another few hours just to get back to where he had been.

"Wasn't that fun?" [Name]'s question was difficult to hear behind her joyous laughter. Standing from the surrounding mess, she picked up the rake Urushihara had dropped when she jumped him. "Come on, we can clean this up and do it again."

"Why would I want to do that again?" Urushihara watched as [Name] started the tedious process of raking up the leaves, only she was able to do it much faster than he had. Had he been holding the rake backwards the entire time?

"Uh, because it was fun," [Name] retorted, her tone sounding as if her answer were the most obvious in the world. "Didn't you ever jump in leaf piles in the Fall when you were a kid? It's like, a fundamental thing to a good childhood."

Making no sound to answer her, Urushihara stood from the mess of leaves, dusting himself off. "I'm not really interested in reliving that experience," he droned. "If you want to do it, be my guest. You can finish raking the leaves too."

"Aw, come on Urushihara," [Name] whined, pausing mid-rake to get his attention. She scurried over to where he was trying to climb up the stairs, reaching for his hand. "I'm sorry for ruining all your hard work. Heaven knows it's a rare thing when you do that." Ignoring [Name]'s unintentional reference to his old home, he continued to hear her out as she said, "If you want, I can help you finish cleaning this up. It'll go by a lot faster with a friend, right?"

A heavy sigh followed by a long groan escaped Urushihara's lips. On one hand, he really didn't want to finish cleaning the leaves again, but on the other he knew Ashiya would continue to hold his game for ransom if he didn't.

"Fine," he relented after a while. "But no more jumping into the piles, got it?"

"Understood," [Name] said with a grin.

Handing Urushihara his rake back, he set off to make smaller piles than before. As he finished each miniature pile, [Name] would stuff them into the trash bag. The job went a lot faster with the two of them working together and as promised, [Name] didn't jump into any more piles that Urushihara had made.

"See? I told you it'd be faster with a friend," [Name] boasted. "Oh, wait, one leaf left."

[Name] reached up toward Urushihara's head. He nearly flinched as she thumbed through his hair, catching a single leaf between her fingers. He had to suppress a shudder as she gently pulled it out before throwing it into the bag.

"There we go," she said before tying up the trash bag. "No more leaves."

In one fluid motion, she tossed the large garbage bag full of leaves to the floor before jumping on it herself. It sank under her weight, almost like a bean bag chair would, but what worried Urushihara was the sudden ripping sound that came from it. In an instant, the bag had torn down the side, allowing a hole big enough for the leaves to come spilling back out. Before he could scramble to put them back, a huge gust of wind blew them across the yard once more.

"...Whoops," [Name] said, grinning apologetically. "Well, time to start again?"


	4. Winter (Sadao Maou & Sasaki Chiho)

Shivering slightly, Chiho tries to bring the edges of her coat closer to her. "It sure is cold today, Mr. Maou," she comments, watching as her breath comes out in puffs before disappearing. Her shoes kick a bit at the snow as the two of them walk, leaving dragging footprints in their wake.

"Well, it did snow last night, Chi," Maou responds matter of factly, glancing around at the powdered ground and buildings. He couldn't help but think how the Winter in Ente Isla felt so much more colder than the Winter in this world. It was a nice change.

"Oh, that's right," Chiho agreed, remembering how the snow had just started to fall as she was readying herself for bed the night before.

The two of them walk on in relative silence toward Maou's apartment complex, only the occasional sound of a person passing by or a car driving past breaking the serine moment. Having just gotten off a long, grueling day at work, neither of them were in the mood for very much chatting. In fact, both seemed content to just have a slow, relaxing walk back to the apartment.

"H-Hey!" Maou yelled in surprise as a snowball landed a few feet in front of him. Glancing around, he noticed another one coming right at him. It hit his shoulder as he growled out a, "What the hell?!"

From beside him, Chiho squeaked as she was hit directly in the face by a third flying snowball. It dripped off her face in clumps before joining the snow near her feet. "W-What's going on?"

"We're under attack," Maou says urgently, grabbing her arm before attempting to run off to hide somewhere. He manages to find a light fixture that he steps behind, placing Chiho behind him. It doesn't occur to him that the lamp post is too thin to give him any decent coverage. "Show yourself, fiend!"

"Fiend? Really?" From across the street, in an empty lot neither Maou nor Chiho had noticed at first, [Name] stands snickering at the two of them. She tosses another snowball directly up in the air, catching it in her palm again on its way back down. "I just thought I'd get your attention."

"Oh, [Name]," Chiho huffs when she realizes it's only a friend playing a prank that was 'attacking'. She steps out from behind Maou, giving the other girl a half glare. "You could've just called out to us."

"What fun is that?" She laughs, chucking another snowball in their direction. "Think fast!"

Dodging this final snowball easily, Maou settles down now that the faux crises is officially averted. He walks across the street with Chiho, entering the empty lot that [Name] is standing in. Around them, he notices the large lumps of snow that had been formed into half-domes; there are a few on either side of the lot.

"What happened here?" He asks, gesturing toward the mounds.

[Name] glances around, smiling at the lot. "I found it like this. My best guess is some kids were having a snowball fight earlier." Walking over to one of the mounds, she ducks down behind it and comes back with a few more snowballs in hand.

"You're not going to start one yourself, are you?" Chiho asks warily, ready to bolt for one of the opposing mounds in case [Name] decides to take fire.

"No, no, I'm done with that," [Name] answers, laughing at her friend's suspicion. "I actually wanted to come here and build a few snowmen."

There's a certain glitter in Chiho's eyes once [Name] reveals her plans and the younger girl excitedly asks if she can help. When [Name] agrees, the two of them get started, working on making a large lump of snow that they can easily roll around together. Maou is left standing at the entrance to the lot, a look of confusion settled on his face as he watches the two of them.

"Maou, don't just stand there," [Name] chastises after realizing he'd only been watching them for a solid five minutes. "Come help us build snowmen!"

"Snow… Men…?" If the confusion wasn't evident on his face, it certainly was in his voice.

Both girls looked at him with mild concern before Chiho spoke up. "Mr. Maou, didn't you ever build a snowman as a kid?"

For a brief second, Maou recalled his rough childhood in Ente Isla. "No, I don't really recall."

"Well, your childhood sucked," [Name] said bluntly. "But that doesn't mean your adulthood has to. Come over here and you can help us build some now." When Maou still hadn't moved from his spot at the entrance, [Name] got up in a huff, grabbing his arm so she could drag him further into the lot. "Come on, Chiho, let's see if we can teach an old dog a new trick."

For a few hours, the three of them worked together on building snowmen. [Name] had showed Maou how to start, helping him make piles of snow before teaching him how to roll them around until they were the right size. Chiho tried to show him how to stack the larger than average snowballs on top of each other, but when they got too heavy for her, she merely settled for explaining it verbally. Soon, the three of them had made several snowmen, each one decorated to look similar to a friend of theirs.

"These look great," [Name] cheered, practically preening at their good work.

"Now what?" Maou asked, also looking over their handiwork with a scrutinizing eye. Despite the girls saying each snowman looked like a different person they knew, he just couldn't see it. All of them looked like round lumps of snow stacked on each other at varying heights in his opinion.

"Now we just leave them here," [Name] said matter-of-factly, rubbing her gloved hands together as she shivered. "I'm cold and I'm sure you two want to get on home. How about we all walk together?"

"That sounds good," Chiho agreed.

As the two girls walked off, Maou stared at them incredulously. They had all just spent hours working on building all these snowmen and now they were just going to leave them here? It made no sense to him. Maybe there was a lot more to this world he still had to learn before it ever would.


End file.
